Episode 50-Framing the Stories
Irish Music Stories Podcast
How much power does a backdrop have? As the Irish Music Stories production team works to assemble episodes and bonus materials, Shannon explores the wooded hills of Medford, Massachusetts to find visual and organizational surrounds that look and feel like time-worn jigs, and ballads, and nights of music and dance.
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Episode 49-The Naming of Birds
Irish Music Stories Podcast
After a horrific week of social unrest in the U.S., and as Irish Music Stories begins a major overhaul, host Shannon Heaton offers a meditation on how cataloging and organizing can soothe the soul.
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Episode 48-Between the Tunes
Irish Music Stories Podcast
What’s up with stage banter? And why all the joking around between tunes in a session? Host Shannon Heaton explores the on- and offstage chat that surrounds traditional music with Máirtín de Cógáin, Paddy League, Joanie Madden, Rus Bradburd, Liz Carroll, and Jean-Michel Veillon.
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Episode 47-The Myth of Tragedy
Irish Music Stories Podcast
How do composers conjure melodies in traditional Irish and Scottish styles? Where do the tunes come from, and what do they carry? Composers Liz Carroll, Dáithí Sproule, and Katie McNally discuss creativity, resilience, and the myths behind the music.
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Episode 46-Ancient Tongues, Modern Times
Irish Music Stories Podcast
Learning just a few words in Gaelic is mannerly when visiting Ireland and Scotland. And it can be a way IN to cultural values and humor. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Séamus Ó Flatharta, Ciarán Bolger, Michael Coult, Julie Fowlis, Mary Jane Lamond, and Brian Ó hAirt help me understand connections between language and music. And how songs in Irish and Scottish Gaelic transmit emotion, carry history, and lift people up.
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Episode 45-Trad in the Classroom
Irish Music Stories Podcast
There’s no definitive Irish or Scottish music method book. A lot of seasoned practitioners learned their music in kitchens and pubs. So how do they bring that immersive, social learning approach into the classroom? The latest IMS episode features traditional musicians who share ideas about teaching and learning traditional music.
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Episode 44-Not Easy Playing Green
Irish Music Stories Podcast
The topic of sustainable travel for touring musicians has been reframed, as Covid-19 has cancelled most music live music events for an unforeseeable amount of time. But as activity kicks up again, conversations about responsible, viable, grateful travel—and conservation—remain vital. The latest IMS episode features traditional musicians who advocate for marine ecosystems, planet conscious travel, and the health bees.
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Episode 43-From the Fringe to the Fore
Irish Music Stories Podcast
Hear how the banjo came into common acceptance in Irish circles from Daniel Neely, Enda Scahill, and Martin Howley… and check in with the joys and challenges of outsider status from harpist Maeve Gilchrist, cellist Natalie Haas, and saxophone players Susan Lindsay and Isaac Alderson.
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Episode 42-The Long Arm of the Irish Tradition
Irish Music Stories Podcast
Persistent infections like Covid-19 … and social injustice.. and racism… loom large. And still, these little Irish jigs and reels are forming bridges across oceans. What happens when people fall in love with a foreign music culture and pull themselves out of their comfort zones to travel and learn to play? Learn about the perspective Irish music has offered players on five continents.
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Episode 41- Transplanting Tradition in the Land of the Trees
Irish Music Stories Podcast
What do rampant evictions, military ship collisions, and Christmas trees have to do with jigs and reels? Learn how Gaelic culture resonated in Canada’s “New Scotland,” and down in the Boston States, from singer Mary Jane Lamond and fiddle players Troy MacGillivray, Andrea Beaton, Alasdair Fraser, Katie McNally, and Lee Cremo.
info_outlineHow do artists paint trad? And how do they capture the sounds and feelings—and the bigger stories behind Irish music and dance—in two dimensions? In conversations with Brian Vallely, James Gurney, Vincent Crotty, and Catharine Kingcome, host Shannon Heaton explores Travelling pipers, a dilapidated hotel in the Hudson Valley, Dudley Street dance hall in post WWII America, and a country home in County Clare.
Plenty of music here, too. Full playlist below.
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Special thanks to everybody for listening. And thank you to Robert McOwen, Lance Ramshaw, Chris Murphy, Richard Kuhwarth, Mark Haynes, John Kerr, Will Coleman, David Vaughan, Brian Benscoter, Joe Garrett, and Gerry Corr
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Music Heard on IMS Episode 29
all music traditional, unless otherwise indicated
Tune: “Free the Heel,” from Kitchen Session
Artist: Matt Heaton guitar
Tune: “Dear Irish Boy,” from Swimming Against The Falls
Artist: Joey Abarta
Tune: “The Bull’s March,” from The Raven's Rock
Artist: Cillian Vallely
Tune: “Silver,” from Silver
Artist & Composer: Hanneke Cassel
Tune: “Grupai Ceol Memories,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist: Matt Heaton guitar
Montage: Montage from The Travelling People
Artists: Various members of English Traveller Community, Produced by Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger & Charles Parker
Tune: “Dark Low Jig” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist: Matt Heaton guitar
Tune: “Wicklow Hornpipe,” from Swimming Against The Falls
Artist: Joey Abarta
Song: “Terror Time,” from The Travelling People
Artists: Joe Heaney (voice)
Composer: Ewan MacColl
Tune: “Mutey Big Build” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist: Matt Heaton guitar
Song: “Will Ye Go Lassie, Go,” from Wild Mountain Thyme
Artist: The McPeake Family
Tune: “A Chailleach Do Mharais Me/The Gold Ring,” from The Celtic Uilleann Pipes Collection - Volume 1
Artist: Brian Vallely
Tune: “Meaning of Life” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist: Matt Heaton guitar
Tune: “Rakish Paddy,” from The Last of the Travelling Pipers
Artist: Felix Doran
Tune: “Drifting Clouds,,” from The Joy of First Year Piano
Composer: Denes Agay
Artist: Nigel Heaton
Tune: “Song of Dinotopia,” AKA Lift up your heads, Ye mighty Gates (Hymn #436) AKA TRURO, from Episcopal Hymnal
Composer: Lowell Mason (1792-1872), words Georg Weissel (1590-1635)
Artist: Shannon Heaton
Tune: “Pound the Floor” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist: Matt Heaton guitar
Tune: Jackie Coleman’s” reel from Music at Matt Molloy’s
Artists: Matt Molloy & Friends
Tune: “Siege of Ennis,” from Copley Records release
Artist: Johnny Powell and his Band
Tune: “Leaving JP” from Silver
Artist & Composer: Hanneke Cassel
Tune: “Liam O’ Súilleabhaín & Brístí Breaca” AKA Bill Sullivan’s & Britches Full of Stitches from Jackie Daly Agus Séamus Creagh
Artist: Jackie Daly & Séamus Creagh
Tune: “Job of Journeywork,” from Cover the Buckle
Artist: Séan Clohessy, Sean McComiskey & Kieran Jordan
Tune: “Little Bird Lullaby,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist: Matt Heaton guitar
Tune: “Slow Reel,” from January EP
Artist: The Assembly
Tune: “Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel,” from House Session
Artists: Boston and Clare musicians
Tune: “Doberman’s Wallet,” from Malden Fiddle lesson
Artist: Tommy Peoples
Tune: “Triumph Theme,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist: Matt Heaton guitar
Tune: “The Traveller,” from Kitchen Session
Artists: Matt & Shannon Heaton
Tune: “Wild Irishman & The Sailor’s Bonnet,” from Paddy Keenan
Artist: Paddy Keenan
Poem: “No Fixed Abode,” from Kitchen Session
Artist: Anne Marie Kennedy